Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

As much as my wife uses (and likes to be in) the kitchen, it really needs to be bigger.  MUCH bigger.  Our house is not that big, but the kitchen size is not even commensurate with the total square footage.  It's like something from a small one-bedroom apartment.  

But even if we had the money, I don't know what we'd do about it.  There is no way to renovate the space as is.  It would require moving the outside wall, which presents all kinds of hassle and probably quadruples the cost, at a minimum.  And the outside A/C unit and generator would have to be moved.  

It ain't happening.  We're just stuck with this starter-kitchen.  

Our panel is sorta in the basement, really just the lower floor in the unit.  It's not a Federal thank goodness.

I know we have some engineering types here. I want to move the cooktop so that it would be in the middle of the kitchen facing the living room. But I also want it to vent outside. I do not want a range hood down in the middle of the kitchen. How important is the hood compared to the fan?

I put in two high-powered bathroom fans above my stove. Works just fine, without the huge obstruction of a hood.

My wife wanted a vent above our stove.  There is no outlet for one, so she bought some pretty weak fairly procey gizmo that now vents into the dining room.  Supposedly it has carbon filters.  I almost never use it except for its light.  The panel slides out, so the light is OK.  There was a cold air return in the dining room up high they plugged it into, supposedly.  Getting high powered bathroom fans sounds like a good idea to me.  I don't know where the air goes ...

Outside.

Retractable downdraft vent system:

We had some similar in Cincy.  The kitchen originally had a Jenn Aire range with downdraft, this style retracts and disappears.

My wife's house and my old one were built by the same builder, both had JennAire ranges, which were all the rage back when.  They had that downdraft vent in the middle.  My wife's had been replaced before she bought the house, then we redid the kitchen and put in the inductive cooktop.  The hole in the floor was still there, patched over.

It was a pretty slick gizmo, impressed visitors a lot.  And it sucked.

Funny story, when we sold the house the buyer had some "inspector" check stuff out and that someone said the cooktop didn't work.  He turned it on and of course in a few seconds it turned itself off with no pot on the unit.